Authors: Xuyang Lu, Siling Liu, Lei Zhang, Shaobo Ye, Chenchen Yue, Yufei Feng, Yu Zhou, Zhao Liang, Ying Wang, Weiyou Yang, Qing Shi
Published: 2025-03-23
Source: Full article
AbstractDendrite growth, corrosion, and hydrogen evolution are major issues for Zn anodes, which seriously hinder the further practical application of aqueous zinc‐ion batteries. To address these issues, Zirconium Nitride (ZrN) layer with a thickness of 110 nm is uniformly deposited on the surface of Zn anode using plasma‐enhanced atomic layer deposition (PE‐ALD). In/ex situ characterizations verify that the as‐introduced ZrN layer has excellent anticorrosive and zincophilic ability, which can suppress corrosion and hydrogen evolution, lower the nucleation energy barrier for Zn2+ deposition, and effectively inhibit dendrite growth. Theoretical calculations also reveal that ZrN exhibits significantly higher adsorption capacity for Zn2+ compared to bare Zn, which is conducive to regulating the Zn deposition behavior. This innovative interface significantly extends battery cycle life and enhances coulombic efficiency. Encouragingly, under a current density of 5 mA cm−2 and areal capacity of 1 mAh cm−2, the Zn@ZrN symmetrical cells demonstrate an extraordinary cycling life of up to 5000 h, significantly surpassing other reported Zn anodes modified by films/coatings. In addition, it also exhibits an impressive cycling life of 1200 h at 1 mA cm−2 and 1 mAh cm−2. The full cells of Zn@ZrN||MnO2 retain high capacity after 1000 cycles, markedly outperforming conventional Zn||MnO2 batteries.